With air travel figures beginning to climb once more, the chances of an airline losing your luggage could also be increasing. New data reveals that one-in-four Australians and Americans, and almost one-in-three Canadians have had an airline misplace or lose their luggage.
Using survey data from more than 3,000 adults across all three nations, industry analysts investigated whether they got their belongings back, how much they were compensated by the airline, if at all, and how travel insurance payouts compared.
The vast majority of travelers who had their luggage misplaced by an airline did get it back eventually (more than 90% in all three nations) and on average, it took a couple days to be returned.
| Was your luggage eventually returned? | Australia | Canada | USA |
| Yes, within a matter of hours | 14.6% | 20.1% | 28.4% |
| Yes, within a matter of days | 62.2% | 57.1% | 49.6% |
| Yes, within a matter of weeks | 12.2% | 13.0% | 9.7% |
| Yes, within a matter of months | 4.5% | 3.1% | 2.5% |
| My luggage was never returned | 6.5% | 6.7% | 9.8% |
As for who got compensated by the airline, 37% of Canadians were reimbursed, followed by 25.2% of Australians and 23.4% of Americans.
On average, Canadians had to wait 18 days for a $734 average payout. Americans had to wait 21 days for $668 on average, and Australians had to wait 28 days for $512.
When asked what was the most common type of item that was stolen or went missing while traveling, Australians and Canadians said clothing, while Americans reported that it was electronic devices.
As for protecting their belongings, around half of all North Americans preferred keeping items on their person. In contrast, nearly two-thirds of Australians said they took out travel insurance as their preferred protection measure.